Selig: No Need To Act In Latest Rocker Ruckus

Says Braves Acted Properly

June 11, 2000|By Paul Sullivan, Tribune Staff Writer.

Commissioner Bud Selig said Saturday that Major League Baseball is staying out of the latest John Rocker controversy, in which the former Atlanta Braves closer allegedly threatened a Sports Illustrated reporter.

Rocker was fined by the Braves after a confrontation with SI reporter Jeff Pearlman last week and was subsequently demoted to Class AAA Richmond.

Selig, who suspended Rocker for making offensive remarks about women, gays and foreigners in a December SI article, plans no further disciplinary action against the pitcher.

"At this point, no, I don't feel I have to do any more," Selig said at Comiskey Park, where he attended Saturday's Sox-Cubs game. "I think the Braves have done as much as needs to be done there."

Rocker received as many cheers as boos after returning from his suspension, and his defenders suggested Selig was taking away the pitcher's right to free speech.

"I [suspended Rocker] because it was the right thing to do," Selig said. "I'll tell you today it was still the right thing to do. I don't have any second thoughts about it. How people react or don't react to him is something I have no control over.

"I believe very strongly in social responsibility. Life is not a one-way street. I believe that all of us [have] a social responsibility. I think one of the reasons baseball is doing as well as it has been doing is how the players have acted the last four or five years. They've been terrific, cooperative, sensitive. So this was not a great experience for me by any stretch of the imagination."

Selig spoke to Rocker over the winter, but his advice to chill out apparently went unheeded. In some ways Rocker has become to Selig what Pete Rose was to former Commissioner Bart Giamatti.

"It has occupied a lot of my time," Selig conceded. "I watched the situation very closely. It's hard for me sometimes to comprehend what people are thinking, and I was very sad on Sunday when I heard it. At first I was surprised . . . and then extremely saddened by it."